GAZA: Polio vaccination coverage in Gaza has reached 90 percent, the head of the United Nations Palestinian refugee agency said on Monday, adding that the next step was to ensure hundreds of thousands of children got a second dose at the end of the month.
The campaign to vaccinate some 640,000 children in Gaza under 10 years of age against polio, which began on Sept. 1, presented major challenges to UNRWA and its partners due to the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas.
It followed confirmation by the World Health Organization (WHO) last month that a baby had been partially paralyzed by the type 2 polio virus, the first such case in the Palestinian territory in 25 years.
More than 446,000 Palestinian children in central and south Gaza were vaccinated earlier this month before a campaign to vaccinate a final 200,000 children in north Gaza began on September 10 despite access restrictions, evacuation orders and shortages of fuel.
The first round of the polio vaccination campaign in Gaza ended successfully, UNRWA’s chief Philippe Lazzarini said, adding that 90 percent of the enclave’s children had received a first dose.
“Parties to the conflict have largely respected the different required “humanitarian pauses” showing that when there is a political will, assistance can be provided without disruption. Our next challenge is to provide children with their second dose at the end of September,” he wrote on X.
Israel began its military campaign in Gaza on Oct. 7 last year after Hamas led a shock incursion into southern Israel, killing about 1,200 people and taking about 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.
The resulting assault on Gaza has killed more than 41,000 Palestinians, according to the enclave’s health ministry, and reduced much of the territory to rubble.
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UNRWA chief: Gaza polio vaccination coverage has reached 90 percent
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UNRWA chief: Gaza polio vaccination coverage has reached 90 percent
- More than 446,000 Palestinian children in central and south Gaza were vaccinated
MSF calls Israeli ban a ‘grave blow’ to Gaza aid
- Doctors Without Borders is among 37 foreign humanitarian organizations banned from the territory
- The group, which has hundreds of staff in Gaza, says: 'Denying medical assistance to civilians is unacceptable'
JERUSALEM: International charity Doctors Without Borders Friday condemned a “grave blow to humanitarian aid” after Israel revoked the status it needs to operate in Gaza for refusing to share Palestinian staff lists.
Israel on Thursday confirmed it had banned access to the Gaza Strip to 37 foreign humanitarian organizations for refusing to share lists of their Palestinian employees.
Doctors Without Borders (MSF), which has 1,200 staff members in the Palestinian territories, the majority of them in Gaza, said in a statement that “denying medical assistance to civilians is unacceptable under any circumstances.”
The medical organization argued that it had “legitimate concerns” over new Israeli requirements for foreign NGO registration, specifically the disclosing of personal information about Palestinian staff.
It pointed to the fact that 15 MSF staff had been “killed by Israeli forces,” and that access to any given territory should not be conditional on staff list disclosure.
“Demanding staff lists as a condition for access to territory is an outrageous overreach,” the charity said.
MSF also denounced “the absence of any clarity about how such sensitive data will be used, stored, or shared,” charging that Israeli forces “have killed and wounded hundreds of thousands of civilians” in Gaza during the course of the war.
It also charged that Israel had “manufactured shortages of basic necessities by blocking and delaying the entry of essential goods, including medical supplies.”
Israel controls and regulates all entry points into Gaza, which is surrounded by a wall that began to be built in 2005.
Felipe Ribero, MSF head of mission in the Palestinian territories, told AFP that all of its operations were still ongoing in Gaza.
“We are supposed to leave under 60 days, but we don’t know whether it will be three or 60 days” before Israeli authorities force MSF to leave, he said.
Prominent humanitarian organizations hit by the Israeli ban include the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC), World Vision International and Oxfam, according to an Israeli ministry list.
The ban, which came into effect on December 31, 2025 at midnight, has triggered widespread international condemnation.
Israel says the new regulation aims to prevent bodies it accuses of supporting terrorism from operating in the Palestinian territories.
MSF says it currently supports one in five hospital beds in Gaza and assists one in three mothers in the territory, and urged the Israeli authorities to meet to discuss the ban.
Israel on Thursday confirmed it had banned access to the Gaza Strip to 37 foreign humanitarian organizations for refusing to share lists of their Palestinian employees.
Doctors Without Borders (MSF), which has 1,200 staff members in the Palestinian territories, the majority of them in Gaza, said in a statement that “denying medical assistance to civilians is unacceptable under any circumstances.”
The medical organization argued that it had “legitimate concerns” over new Israeli requirements for foreign NGO registration, specifically the disclosing of personal information about Palestinian staff.
It pointed to the fact that 15 MSF staff had been “killed by Israeli forces,” and that access to any given territory should not be conditional on staff list disclosure.
“Demanding staff lists as a condition for access to territory is an outrageous overreach,” the charity said.
MSF also denounced “the absence of any clarity about how such sensitive data will be used, stored, or shared,” charging that Israeli forces “have killed and wounded hundreds of thousands of civilians” in Gaza during the course of the war.
It also charged that Israel had “manufactured shortages of basic necessities by blocking and delaying the entry of essential goods, including medical supplies.”
Israel controls and regulates all entry points into Gaza, which is surrounded by a wall that began to be built in 2005.
Felipe Ribero, MSF head of mission in the Palestinian territories, told AFP that all of its operations were still ongoing in Gaza.
“We are supposed to leave under 60 days, but we don’t know whether it will be three or 60 days” before Israeli authorities force MSF to leave, he said.
Prominent humanitarian organizations hit by the Israeli ban include the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC), World Vision International and Oxfam, according to an Israeli ministry list.
The ban, which came into effect on December 31, 2025 at midnight, has triggered widespread international condemnation.
Israel says the new regulation aims to prevent bodies it accuses of supporting terrorism from operating in the Palestinian territories.
MSF says it currently supports one in five hospital beds in Gaza and assists one in three mothers in the territory, and urged the Israeli authorities to meet to discuss the ban.
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